Sweet Fall Treat : Pumpkin Dump Cake

I made this easy cake on Halloween and totally forgot to post about it. Luckily, it is not just a Halloween-appropriate dessert. This Pumpkin Dump Cake is the perfect fall treat. It tastes like pumpkin pie, but it is so much easier to make. That's the thing about dump cakes. While they don't have the most appetizing or elegant name, they are simple, quick and delicious. You basically dump the ingredients in a pan and bake. Even better? You probably have most of the ingredients in your pantry and fridge already. So if you're craving something sweet this weekend, give this cake a go.

Pumpkin Dump Cake

Recipe via Tablespoon, with a few minor changes

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Total Time: 60 minutes | Serves 16

INGREDIENTS

1 (29 ounce) can pure pumpkin

1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk

3 whole eggs

1 cup white sugar (I used half white, half brown for a deeper, molasses-like sweetness)

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1 (18.25 ounce) boxed cake mix (instead of the suggested Betty Crocker Supermoist Yellow Cake Mix, I used a Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix for extra fall-time flavor)

1 cup chopped pecans (optional, but highly recommended)

3/4 cup butter, melted

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking dish.

2. In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar and cinnamon until well blended. Spread pumpkin mixture in prepared baking dish. The mixture will be very wet! This is OK.

3. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over the top of the batter. If adding pecans (please do!), sprinkle them over the cake mix. Pour melted butter on top, evenly distributing over the dish. Bake 50 minutes.

4. Let cake cool, then cut into slices (which may fall apart like mine did, but it still tasted good!). For extra decadence, top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I used Talenti Tahitian Vanilla Bean gelato and it was heavenly.

My husband loved this cake, saying it tasted just like pumpkin pie, and even a friend who watched our dogs over the weekend (while we were in Miami) enjoyed the leftovers. I will warn you: this makes a lot of cake! We were unable to finish the whole pan. So it is ideal for an autumn dinner party, or even to cap off a Thanksgiving meal.

If you give this recipe a whirl, I'd love to hear how you like it!

A Halloween Love Story

[ A kiss during our engagement session. ]

While Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, it will always hold special significance for me and my husband because it is when we officially became a couple. Since our three-year dating anniversary is tomorrow, Oct. 29, I thought I’d share the story of how we met.

[ A sign at our wedding. ]

G and I actually grew up in the same small-ish Southern California town of Simi Valley but we didn’t meet until 2001, when we were sophomores in high school. We are fairly certain our first encounter was not on campus but at the church youth group our mutual friends attended. But soon enough G was part of our close-knit circle of friends, hanging out every weekend, eating lunch together at school. I saw him all the time.

However, we never dated, which I think may be many people’s first assumption when I say we knew each other in high school. Funny enough, one of my longtime girlfriends had a huge crush on G, while I became smitten for his best friend at the time. I even went to prom with him! (Though nothing ever happened, us innocent church kids.) G, on the other hand, went to the prom with my best friend (and maid of honor)—but just as friends. Suffice to say, no one would have ever put G and I together back then.

After graduation, I went off to college (Pepperdine, not far from home) and G joined the Coast Guard, which took him to Virginia, New Jersey, Seattle and Alaska. We kind of lost touch, seeing each other once or twice when G came home to visit. As embarrassing as it is to admit, it was the power of Facebook that reconnected us, and in 2011, after Greg purchased a condo, my best friend and I decided to make a trip to San Diego to see the new place and catch up with our old friend.

[ Exploring San Diego during a Labor Day weekend getaway in 2011. ]

[ Dancing (and sweating) the night away in the Gaslamp. This is the night something changed between us. ]

It was during that Labor Day weekend getaway that we first had feelings—much to our surprise!—that we could be more than just friends. The sparks flew one night while dancing at a club. After that trip, we continued to talk for hours over Facebook messenger or on the phone, but being my insecure self, I was so nervous that he didn’t really like me (that I was making his sweet comments out to be more than they were) or that admitting my feelings could ruin the relationship.

[ A snippet from our first Facebook conversation, when we reconnected in August 2011. ]

The long-distance flirtation lasted for about two months until G journeyed from San Diego to Simi Valley to come with me and my bestie to a Halloween house party. He had invited me to SD, saying the holiday celebration down south would be “epic,” but my best friend had already committed to the house party and I was too nervous to go hang out with G by myself. So he came to me—a fact that my BFF tried to convince me did mean something.

That night, G famously dressed up as Lt. Dangle from "Reno 911!" and he helped me tweak his Coast Guard work uniform into a "sexy Coastie" costume. We were inseparable at the party and late in the night, while talking on the couch, he kissed me. And that was that. The romance became a real relationship.

[ All dressed up at the Halloween party where we had our first kiss and became a couple. ]

I’ll fast-forward the rest of the story: We dated for more than a year and a half until I finally made the move to San Diego. He proposed immediately, in June 2013 during a vacation in Maui, and we were married in La Jolla this past May.

And it all may never have happened if it wasn’t for that Halloween party three years ago. OK. I guess I like this holiday after all :)

Weekend Recap : Guavaween & A Bucs Game

We had an eventful weekend, with Guavaween, a Halloween party in historic Ybor City, on Saturday night, followed by (too-early-if-you-ask-me) tailgating on Sunday morning before the 1 o'clock Buccaneers game. Still tired from all our fun, let's cut the words and rely on pictures.

A few scenes from our weekend...

 Mr. Gangsta and Mrs. Flapper make their entrance at Guavaween, at The Cuban Club in the historic district of Ybor City. Needing costumes in a pinch, I recycled the outfit I wore to a 1920s-themed NYE party two years ago and added a white boa.

 The hubby proving he's a beer-shotgunning champ while tailgating before the Bucs game. We were hanging out with GT's Coast Guard crew. Of course, the hubs had to show his San Diego Chargers pride, even in Florida!

 Enjoying the crowd, the sunshine, hot dogs and super-sized frozen drinks at the game.

Hoping you had a wonderful weekend, too!

Fri-YAY for the Best Days

Saturday and Sunday are always the best days. Too bad there's not more of 'em! But I guess having just two days for going on adventures or simply doing nothing provides the motivation to make the most of them-- whatever you do, or don't do.

This weekend, the hubby and I do have plans. New friends invited us to tag along with them on Saturday night to Guavaween, a "Voodoo Carnival" in Ybor City. I did a little googling and discovered it is quite the rowdy and rollicking Halloween party, with booze and beads, burlesque and side show acts, street performers and a costume contest. So, as to blend in with the wild crowd, I may have to throw together some kind of edgy, creative costume in a jiffy. We'll see how that goes. I was kind of looking forward to not having to purchase a tacky, over-priced costume this year... I need inventive, affordable ideas post-haste!

Sunday is all about football, of course. But instead of heading to a bar, we'll actually be at a game! GT's Coast Guard shipmates (and their girlfriends/spouses) are gathering at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa for tailgating, and then we'll go inside to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the Minnesota Vikings. It'll be my second time at an NFL game and while I'm not the biggest football fan, I am excited to drink some beer, eat a mustard-topped hot dog and meet some new people. 

I'm also thrilled that the weather will be much nicer than my first NFL game, when we saw the Chargers at home in San Diego and basically melted in our unshaded seats, suffering through each quarter in sweltering 100+ degree heat. Yuck. I couldn't even pretend to have fun that day. Even GT, the biggest Chargers fan ever, was miserable. Fortunately, the forecast this weekend is predicting temps in the high 70s and low 80s. Perfect. That's Florida in the fall.

Have a great weekend!

(Image via A Fabulous Fete)

Thinking Outside the Jack-O-Lantern

Succulent Adorned Pumpkin Stack by Succulents & Sunshine, via Wedding Chicks

Contrary to most bloggers, Halloween is not my favorite holiday. Not even my second-favorite holiday. I mean, I don't hate it but I guess the holiday has just never lived up to the hype for me. (Kind of like New Year's Eve.) I'd say my best-ever Halloween happened three years ago, when my now-hubby and I got together. (We shared our first kiss at a Halloween party in 2011. But more on that story next week.)

Anyway, even though I'm not the strewn-the-house-in-cobwebs, place-skulls-on-the-mantel, plan-my-costume-for-months type, I am a bit smitten by all the untraditional pumpkin decorating DIYs I've been seeing lately. Especially the no-carve ones! Those are the best in my book. No (pumpkin) guts but all the glory. 

Here are some of my favorite "think outside the Jack-o-Lantern" ideas:

Festive Message Painted Chalkboard Pumpkin by Long & Found, via Glitter Guide

Floral Fall Planter by Oh Joy! (follow link for video)

Metallic Studded Pumpkins by Lily Shop, via Wedding Chicks

Painted Ombre Pumpkins: Pink to Purple by Cosmopolitan // Pink & Orange by Funkytime, via Glitter Guide

Spray Paint & Washi Tape Pumpkins by Lil' Luna, via Wedding Chicks

Pumpkin Bud Vases by Green Wedding Shoes, via Wedding Chicks

Would you create any of these untraditionally decorated pumpkins? The thumb tack and washi tape versions are so quick and easy, they're hard to resist! Plus, they'd likely last until Thanksgiving. Maybe transforming a gourd or two will help get me in the Halloween spirit. If nothing else, it would sure pretty up our doorstep.